LEPIDOPTEROLOGICAL NOTES FROM MONMOUTHSHIRE. 311 



the larvre were fall-grown (one produced an imago at Sheerness on 

 February 20th), I did not find any nettle-heads bitten through. 



3. On the colour polymorphism of the larva. — The colour of the 

 larva does not seem to be in any way influenced by its environment. 

 I have found the green-grey variety, the yellow, and the black — the 

 latter often almost as darl\ as rtnic.s.sa to — feeding on the same plant 

 and in the same stage of development. I suppose that the tendency 

 to vary in colour is uninfluenced by natural selection as the larva has 

 acquired the habit of always feeding in concealment. 



■1. Egglaying. — In so far as I have observed, the ova are never laid 

 on anything but the young green nettle-shoots, though, of course, I 

 know that the imago sometimes chooses dead-nettle, etc., as the food- 

 plant. 



Lepidopterological notes from Monmouthshire. 



By. ,J. F. BIRD. 



My father and I have made the following notes of a few of our 

 entomological captures and observations in East Monmouthshire since 

 April, 1904, and hope some of them will befoundof interest to the readers 

 of the lU'cord, etc. Heapevia malvae {alri'olits) was more plentiful this 

 year than last. Two specimens, that might almost be described as ab. 

 taras, were taken, one being nearly as well marked as the one figured 

 in Mr. C. G. Barrett's Lepidoptera of the. British Isles, pi. xxxvii., fig. 

 lb, but the band is not quite so solid and compact, yet more so than 

 fig. Ic, the intermediate variety. Another one was caught, but being 

 in ragged condition was allowed to escape. We have found Chnjso- 

 phcDius phlaeas scarce until August, when it occurs freely. Specimens 

 with blue spots above the marginal band of the hindwings are quite 

 common, we have taken them with from two to five of these spots, 

 otherwise this species does not appear to vary much here. One male, 

 taken last August, is rather curious in having the outer portion of the 

 left forewing bleached in an irregular patch from the apex to the 

 middle of the inner margin, the copper colour being more affected than 

 the black spots and border. The hindwing also, on that side, has two 

 small whitish splashes on the marginal band. 



PolijuiiniiatKs irarns, also, seemed scarce at the beginning of the 

 year, but became abundant in July and August. A male, taken on 

 August 8th, 1904, at Tintern, has very pale blue hindwings, though 

 the forewings are quite a normal colour. The females are, on the 

 whole, much bluer than those we used to find round London and in 

 West Sussex. In one female, taken last year in August, the six black 

 spots on the underside, usually arranged in a sort of curve, or a note 

 of interrogation, round the central spot, are very large, and, with the 

 exception of the top one, in a straight row close to and parallel with 

 the black-edged orange spots. 



Has anyone observed elsewhei'e whether Zephjjras querciis will 

 almost ignore an oak-tree, with the exception of the females when 

 presumably ovipositing '? They certainly do so here for the ash. 

 What the great attraction is we do not know, unless it is the presence 

 of honeydew, for where we do a lot of our collecting, at the end of July 

 and the beginning of August, each ash-tree has several of these butter- 

 flies settled on, or crawling about, its leaves and twigs, or else flying 



